In vivo imaging of beta-amyloid (A beta) peptide aggregates in the brain may lead to early detection of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and monitoring of the progression and effectiveness of AD treatment. The purpose of this study was to develop novel amyloid imaging agents based on flavone as a core structure. Radioiodinated flavone derivatives were designed and synthesized. The binding affinities of flavone derivatives for A beta aggregates varied from 13 to 77 nM. When in vitro plaque labeling was carried out using post-mortem AD brain sections, all flavones intensely stained not only amyloid plaques but also cerebrovascular amyloids. In biodistribution studies using normal mice, they displayed high brain uptakes ranging from 3.2 to 4.1% ID/g at 2 min postinjection. The radioactivity washed out from the brain rapidly (0.5-1.9% ID/g at 30 min), which is highly desirable for amyloid imaging agents. The results in the study suggest that these classes of radioiodinated flavones may be useful candidates as potential imaging agents for amyloid plaques.